1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to base stations for mobile communications systems and, in particular, to a method and apparatus for automatically configuring antenna near parts equipment connected to such a base station.
2. Description of Related Art
A radio base station used in, for example, a cellular mobile communications system, includes connected equipment such as transmitters, receivers, attenuators, amplifiers, filters, antennas, and the like antenna near parts equipment. It is important to know how this equipment is connected. One reason such knowledge is important arises in connection with fault reports. The base station must know how the equipment of the base station is connected in order to take proper action following fault detection. For example, if an antenna is faulty, the base station must know the equipment connections in order to turn off the proper transmitter and to direct communications to other transmitter/antenna pairs. More importantly, if the fault affects base station ability to broadcast its control channel, the base stations must know the equipment connections in order to switch the control channel to other equipment. Another reason such knowledge is important arises in connection with optimization of base station performance. In this regard, it is recognized that the equipment used in a base station may have certain radio characteristics. At base station start-up, these characteristics are loaded into a base station database. Proper loading, storage and analysis of this information for all of the included equipment requires that the base station know how the equipment is connected.
The information concerning the connection of equipment for a base station is generally loaded into and stored in an installation database (IDB). In the installation database, information identifying various radio paths are stored. All transmitter paths are stored, with each transmitter path comprising, for example, a transmitter number, a filter number and input port number, and an antenna port number. Similarly, all receiver paths are stored, with each receiver path comprising, for example, an antenna mounted amplifier number, an antenna port number, a filter number and output port number, and a receiver number. In base station installations utilizing active antennas, boosters or tower mounted amplifiers, the installation database further identifies for each transmitter and receiver path the included active antennas, boosters and tower mounted amplifiers.
In accordance with known prior art implementations, manual entry into the installation database is made of the equipment identifications for each transmitter and receiver path. For a large antenna configuration, manual data entry is not preferred as it requires the expenditure of significant time and effort, and is prone to human error. A need exists then for a more efficient and accurate mechanism for updating the installation database.
The individual pieces of equipment may further include components that must be calibrated in accordance with the system configuration for optimal performance. For example, some antenna near parts devices include a variable attenuator component whose applied attenuation must be determined and specified. In prior art implementations, this calibration activity involved manual selections based on human determined approximations. A need exists then for a more efficient and accurate mechanism for optimizing system performance in terms of component calibrations.